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Physical Review A

Measurement of the Aharonov-Casher phase of aligned Rb atoms

Axel Görlitz, B. Schuh, Antoine Weis

Published Jun 1, 1995• 46 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have investigated the phase shift caused by a static electric field on a beam of Rb atoms carrying alignment (but no orientation) using an all optical technique with spatially separated pump and probe regions. Quantitative measurements of the phase shift agree with theoretical predictions to within 1.4%. An experimental demonstration of the velocity independence of the effect based on time-resolved measurements is given.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.51.r4305

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We have investigated the phase shift caused by a static electric field on a beam of Rb atoms carrying alignment (but no orientation) using an all optical technique with spatially separated pump and probe regions. Quantitative measurements of the phase shift agree with theoretical predictions to within 1.4%. An experimental demonstration of the velocity independence of the effect based on time-resolved measurements is given.
Summary form only given. The field of atom interferometry is experiencing rapid progress. Atom interferometers have been used to determine topological phase shifts such as the Aharonov-Bohm or Aharonov-Casher effects. Both two beam and more recently multiple beam atom interferometers have been realized. We report on an investigation of the electric (or scalar) Aharonov-Bohm effect in a multiple beam Ramsey experiment. The topological phase shift leads to collapse and revival of the fringe pattern. In a first interaction region cesium atoms are optically pumped into a dark coherent superposition of the magnetic quantum numbers m/sub F/=-4, -2, 0, 2 and 4 of the 6S/sub 1/2/ (F=4) ground state. The coherent superposition is probed after a time T in a second interaction region. When the atoms are irradiated in between the Ramsey interactions by an additional linearly polarized light field 400 MHz blue detuned to the F=4/spl rarr/F'=4 transition of the cesium D1 line, the induced AC Stark shift increases quadratically with the magnetic quantum number. The laser field coupling to the induced atomic dipole moment causes-in the absence of any classical forces-an electric Aharonov-Bohm phase shift.
In this Letter, we report a measurement of the He-McKellar-Wilkens (HMW) topological phase by atom interferometry. The experiment is done with our lithium atom interferometer, and in order to suppress the stray effects present in our first experiment, we use optical pumping of the (7)Li atoms in their F=2, m(F)=+2 (or -2) ground state sublevel. In these conditions, the measured phase shift is the sum of the HMW phase and of the Aharonov-Casher phase, which are separated due to their different m(F) dependence. The HMW phase has been measured for different lithium beam velocities and the results are in very good agreement with a phase independent of the atom velocity, as expected for a topological phase.